Their proposals include targeting small businesses as a driver of job growth, providing more state aid to local governments, youth job training, increasing infrastructure spending and improving energy efficiency.

While we give the Senate Democratic Conference points for effort, their plan falls far short of the mark. (This probably should not come as a surprise, as just three of the Senate Democratic Conference’s 26 members are from outside the New York City area.) We need them to commit to pushing for tax and mandate relief in 2016, and to commit to protecting businesses and non-profits from the Governor’s proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour – the highest of any state in the nation.